Camorra. Police protection to Marilena Natale for threats from the Casalesi

It was assigned to her by the Prefect of Caserta. The reporter would want to give up the protection. Solidarity from FNSI and SUGC

From Friday, February 10, 2017 the journalist Marilena Natale, who lives in Aversa (in the province of Caserta), was put under police protection by a decision of the Prefect of Caserta. According to what has been reported to her by the Anti-Mafia department in Naples, it was observed in phone taps that her life is in danger due to unspecified threats from the Casalesi clans of the Camorra. The journalist wrote on Facebook that she would like to give up the protection of the police, to maintain full freedom of movement required to do her job. To Ossigeno she explained: “My police protectors are the good folks. There are many colleagues who do this job like me and have no protection.”

WHO IS SHE – Marilena Natale has been carrying on journalistic investigations on criminal activities of the Casalesi clan for years, first for the newspaper La Gazzetta di Caserta, then for the local broadcaster Piùenne. Because of this she has been repeatedly threatened (read more). In this latest period, among other things, she also covered the trafficking of waste disposals and the spread of gambling in the Caserta area in which she lives.

WHAT SHE SAID – On 1 February, on Facebook, with a post and a video, she challenged the citizens of Casal di Principe to distance themselves from the Camorra instead of criticizing the proposal from the City Council to build a waste composting plant, a project that would harm the business interests of those who dispose of wastes outside the region.

“I have heard many people of Casal di Principe – she wrote in the post – complaining of the composting plant which will have to be built in Casal di Principe. Considering even offensive to the population such a facility. For over 40 years we have granted the shits of the Camorra do be the good and the bad weather, allowing to bury everything, without saying a word, you voted for politicians who brought prostitutes into the rooms of the City Hall, a City Hall run by a criminal caste, and now you want to talk? But of what? Instead of complaining about the composting site, why don’t you protest against the betting shops that have sprung up like mushrooms, why don’t you protest against the sons of the criminal caste (who continue to live on the blood of the poor people). Let’s get rid of these 4 ignorant fools who are still calling the shots and you … the poor, also offer them a coffee! Protest against the human garbage which still lives in your town. Hunt them out and then you can talk.”

In the video (watch) she used an even more explicit and direct language. Commenting on the words of those who do not want the composting plant so as not to see the name of the town associated with “rubbish”, Marilena Natale says: “I would be ashamed if I were a fellow villager of Zagaria, of Iovine and of Bidognetti”; and again, “I prefer to die rather than to bend to the criminal power of the Camorra.”

PROTECTION – On Saturday, February 11, 2017 the Prefect of Caserta brought together the provincial committee for order and public safety and ordered for a police protection detail for Ms Natale. The measure has been implemented immediately. To formalize it, the consent of the Ministry of Interior is expected in the coming days.

The assignment of the police protection, given by the Prefect of Caserta, is already operational and has been made known by some news websites. On the affair the National Press Federation and the unitary Syndicate of Journalists of Campania intervened with a joint statement, stressing the need to illuminate the Campania region with freedom of information “giving a voice to those who are fighting for legality and the rights of all, taking up and carrying forward the investigations and complaints of threatened colleagues, providing them and the population that ‘media protection’ which is no less essential than the police protection”. (read more)

The reporter received on her Facebook page numerous declarations of solidarity, especially from colleagues. Many have invited her to accept the protection.

SIXTEEN UNDER PROTECTION – With Marilena Natale – as far as we know – the tally of journalists under police protection in Italy rises to 16. To all, the detail was assigned due to “heavy”death threats because of their work. In the Campania region, where in 1985 the reporter of Il Mattino Giancarlo Siani was assassinated, Rosaria Capacchione, Roberto Saviano and Sandro Ruotolo were already living under protection of the police (read).